Saber Hossain Chowdhury placed on 5-day remand

A Dhaka court today (7 October) placed former environment minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury 5-day remand in a case filed over the killing of BNP activist Makbul in 2022.

Mahbubur Rahman, additional chief magistrate of CMM court, passed the order after the police produced the former minister before the court and sought a 10-day remand, reports our correspondent.

The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Saber from the capital's Gulshan area yesterday.

He was later shown arrested in a murder case filed with the Paltan Model Police Station on 30 September over the killing of Mokbul, who died in 2022 after sustaining a bullet injury in the BNP party office.

The case was filed by Md Mahfuzar Rahman.  Details about Mafuzar could not be confirmed immediately.

In a separate development, Saber has also been arrested in four separate cases filed with the Khilgaon Police Station.

CMM Court's Magistrate Saifur Rahman passed the order today following pleas from investigation officers of the cases

From former prisoner of conscience to being accused of murder

A former businessman with an education in law, politics and economics in the UK, Saber Hossain was elected as a member of parliament in 1996 at the age of 35.

He was also the youngest member of the government when he held two deputy ministerial posts in succession between 1999 and 2001. In October 2001, Saber was appointed as political secretary to the president of Bangladesh Awami League Sheikh Hasina, who was then the leader of the opposition in parliament. 

He was accused in several criminal cases during the BNP-led government in 2002 and was arrested on 20 October of that year.

According to an Amnesty International statement issued in January 2003, Saber was detained for one month without substantiating the allegations brought against him. The prosecution failed to bring formal criminal charges against him. 

"Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience detained solely for his identity as a vocal critic of the ruling party," reads the Amnesty statement.

After being reelected in 2008, he took the initiative to introduce a bill prohibiting torture and custodial death. The Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act was passed in 2013.

In 2014, Saber was elected as the 28th president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an international organisation of national parliaments.

The then-ruling Awami League MP defeated three other candidates -- Speaker of Australia's House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop, Indonesian MP Nurhayati Ali Assegaf and former Speaker of the Maldives Parliament Abdulla Shahid - in the election.

Chowdhury bagged 169 votes while his nearest rival Bishop got 95 votes, according to a bdnews24.com report.

A former member of parliament representing the Dhaka-9 constituency from 2008 to 2024. He is also a former president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board. He served as the environment, forest and climate change minister from January 2024 to August 2024. He was appointed as special envoy for climate change on 12 June 2023 by then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Saber is the latest to join the list of arrested Awami League leaders and former ministers since the ouster of the party on 5 August after the student-led July uprising.

At least 47 top-level officials including advisers, ministers, members of parliament, former IGPs of police, and influential leaders of the Awami League have been arrested.